I would like to see the March 19, 2024, referendum ballot about the Mental Health Board property tax levy voted YES!

I know many individuals who have changed from loving and successful people, some successful students and athletes in high school or college, to having episodes with severe mental illness. It’s a traumatic lifelong crisis that affects the person, families, home and community.

The cycles that continue for our loved ones and the trauma of the crisis that our families continue to go through are: Hospitalization after hospitalization, homelessness and insurance issues, only to get help when criminalized or a threat of suicide or homicide.

There is a lack of housing for severe mental illness in McHenry County and a shortage of psychiatrists and therapists. The mental health needs of our community have grown, but funding has not. I know this because I facilitate a family support group for NAMI McHenry County. Since our return after COVID, we have many, many families attending with their loved ones with severe mental illnesses. These families are helpless and hopeless. Loved ones experience incarcerated, hospitalization and homelessness, and the cycle continues.

[ Election 2024: McHenry County vows to lower property tax levy if voters OK sales tax hike ]

Please join me in supporting this important referendum by voting “yes” to the mental health service referendum. The increase will be 0.25% for each $100 spent in our county. This could generate $12 to $13 million per year, effective July 1, 2024. If passed, residents would no longer have the Mental Health Board levy on their property tax bills in 2025.

Gina McGuire

Wonder Lake